Evan Longoria calls 20 minutes before he’s supposed to arrive at River City Grill and says he’ll be there in 10 minutes. A conscientious athlete who shows up on time? Early, even?

The Tampa Bay Rays third baseman walks in with a knit cap on his head and his girlfriend, Jaime Edmondson, on his arm. His manager, Joe Maddon, is in the bar area, but neither sees the other as Longoria walks to a table in the back. Longoria sports a close-cropped beard and a vintage David Bowie T-shirt. He peels off the cap to reveal a buzz cut.

The relationship between Longoria and Edmondson is the kind that sets tongues to wagging: Longoria is rich and handsome, a Gold Glove-winning All-Star and one of the most prominent athletes in Florida. Edmondson was a Miami Dolphins cheerleader for six years, has been on two seasons of The Amazing Race and co-hosts a radio show devoted to fantasy football. Also: She was Playboy’s Miss January 2010.

Yes, the Internet finds it newsworthy when an athlete dates a Playmate. But their relationship didn’t become public until the morning of this dinner, when Edmondson tweeted a picture of them together at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. Apparently this news hasn’t reached Punta Gorda, Fla., because other than an autograph seeker at the door, nobody bothers them.

A two-hour conversation over dinner on the eve of spring training covers the fine arts of hitting, drumming and cooking, among other things, including why Edmondson finds Longoria far more attractive in the offseason than during baseball season.

2011’S HIGHS AND LOWS

Longoria is coming off the “worst” season of his career. He hit 31 homers and knocked in 99 runs, but his average dipped to a career-low .244. He did, though, end on the highest of notes: His walkoff homer in the 12th inning of Game 162 capped one of the most amazing nights in the history of baseball and sent the Rays to the playoffs.

Seconds before Longoria stepped to the plate, the Boston Red Sox had lost to the Baltimore Orioles on a walkoff hit. A win would give Tampa Bay, which had trailed Boston by nine games earlier that month, the AL wild card. That same night, the St. Louis Cardinals completed an equally amazing late-season comeback at the Atlanta Braves’ expense to win the NL wild card.

“It’s definitely going to be a day that’s remembered in baseball history,” Longoria says. “Not only what we did but everything leading up to that day. You don’t really see it too often—four teams’ fates decided on that last day.”

Edmondson had to work that night at a club called The Venue, where she caught the game on TV and managed to stay calm amid all the intensity. (“She’s not like my mom. My mom is the worst,” Longoria says.) Edmondson couldn’t believe the Rays came back from a 7-0 deficit in the fifth inning to beat the New York Yankees. Neither, apparently, could one of Longoria’s teammates.

“I didn’t know this until today. I’m not going to say any names. I’m not going to out anybody. But I guess one of the guys on our team had gone into the clubhouse and started to pack up his locker in the fifth inning, telling our trainers, ‘It was a great year—thank you for everything.’ Our trainer was like, ‘What are you talking about? It’s the fifth inning. We’re going to win this game.’ You have to have hope until the last out.“I was in shock that somebody would have done that.”

The Rays lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Texas Rangers. They enter this season, as usual, highly thought of but picked to finish behind the Yankees and Red Sox in the AL East. Longoria likes his team’s combination of young veterans; the core players have been good for several years but continue to improve. Longoria is confident he will rebound and says he feels better swinging the bat than he did last spring.

THE ART OF HITTING

The conversation turns to hitting, and it is clear Longoria studies his craft closely. He talks to teammates and opponents about how and why they do what they do. This curiosity gives him unique insight about some of the best hitters in the game.

He says Detroit Tigers DH Victor Martinez (out for the season after knee surgery) is the best in the game at setting up pitchers.

“Sometimes you can tell just by a pitcher’s body language ... that they think they got you with that pitch, (like) if a pitcher throws a good curveball or a good slider and you buckle a little bit. I think Victor does that on purpose. Some of us do it. You know (the pitcher is) walking around there a different way or you see a look in his eye. You know, seeing that, what pitch he’s going to throw next, or you have a much better idea of what he’s going to do after that.”

One of Longoria’s best attributes at the plate is that his swing stays in the zone for a long time.

“I used to watch frame-by-frame of Ken Griffey Jr. when he was in his prime. His swing would stay in the frame for like five frames, when you take a fast-action shot. Obviously the flatter the plane, the better the chance you’re going to hit the ball on the barrel.”

STILL GROUNDED

A late bloomer, Longoria wasn’t drafted out of high school, nor did he have any scholarship offers then. He went to junior college for a year and followed that with an MVP season in the Cape Cod League and a strong year at Long Beach State. He was the third overall pick in 2006, the unanimous AL rookie of the year in 2008 and is now a perennial All-Star.

His life has changed completely. His friends have not. Longoria remains close to a group of guys who have known one another since they were kids in California. The four of them have rubber bracelets with the word RAGE on them, representing the first letter in each of their names.

“They keep me straight. We had to fly private with the dogs—we didn’t have to, but they equated it to, ‘Oh, you’re so rich, you’re so famous, you can’t fly commercial with the rest of us.’ They’re always getting on me for something,” he says. “It’s like I’m leaving the baseball clubhouse and going to another baseball clubhouse.”

ROCK STAR

Longoria’s most prized possessions are his dogs and his 2008 AL championship ring, but he has another great piece of memorabilia: a drumhead signed by members of the rock group Rush.

Longoria started playing the drums in 2009, when teammate Gregg Zaun had a set at Tropicana Field.

“I never wanted to play in front of him. I’m a perfectionist. I don’t want anybody to see me do something and look stupid doing it,” Longoria says. “I would get to the field two hours early and play his kit without anybody there, at noon. I’d be back there full sweat, and guys would just be getting to the field, and I’d be playing the drums.”

Cool story how he got the drumhead: Rush’s singer, Geddy Lee, a huge baseball fan, collects balls autographed by pitchers who have thrown no-hitters. When Rays righthander Matt Garza threw one in 2010, a Lee representative called the Rays to ask for a ball. A Rays clubbie named David Westmoreland (everyone calls him Westy) said, sure, if you send Longoria the signed drumhead.

HOT CORNER, HOT OVEN

Longoria orders steak, and Edmondson orders Maddonini chicken—named after the Rays manager, who is friends with the owner and eats here several times a week. The food is terrific and spins the conversation in an unexpected direction: Longoria’s passion for cooking.

On New Year’s Eve, he worked in the kitchen at a restaurant in Las Vegas called N9NE Steakhouse. He is friends with the chef there and at an Italian restaurant upstairs from it.

“I’ve always been an entertainer. I like to have people over, cook for a big crowd, have people at the house,” he says.

He dabbles in everything from soup to cabbage rolls to barbecue, and his work in the kitchen sounds like his work in the batter’s box.

“He gets in a zone,” Edmondson says. “When he’s cooking, he doesn’t check his phone, nothing. I’ll say something, and he won’t hear me. I have to ask him a couple times. (Longoria offers no denial about this.) He has a towel over his shoulder, and he’s flipping things.”

Edmondson had no idea Longoria could cook because he never does during the season. Everything is behind baseball. She was thrilled to learn he has interests beyond hitting a round ball with a round bat.

“It took seven months to see that person,” she says. “No offense, but this person, this offseason person, is way more attractive than baseball Evan.”